The Boston College women's ice hockey team lost to the University of Minnesota 4-3 in the NCAA Quarterfinals on Saturday afternoon at Ridder Arena in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Despite giving up four goals in the first period, the Eagles rallied back to come within one goal of punching their ticket to the Frozen Four.

BC won the opening face-off but was whistled for slashing sixteen seconds into the period. The Eagles cleared the initial charge before Minnesota senior Gigi Marvin grabbed a pass near the BC blue line and beat Eagles netminder Molly Schaus high on her glove side to give the Gophers a 1-0 lead 46 seconds into the game.

A second penalty on BC minutes later lead to another goal for Minnesota at 3:15 in the opening minutes as Marvin flipped a rebound past Schaus after the puck got lost in traffic in front of the net.

The Eagles refused to go down without a fight and quickly answered the Gophers second goal with a tally of their own from freshman Mary Restuccia off a pass by junior Allie Thunstrom at 4:35.

Minnesota added back-to-back tallies at 8:17 and 8:59 to give them a 4-1 lead in the first period.

The two teams settled in for the rest of the period with the Gophers holding onto their three goal lead to end the first frame.

Shots at the end of the first period Minnesota 11 to BC's seven.

The Eagles killed off a power play opportunity from the Gophers and game back with one of their own, but were unable to capitalize on the early opportunity. A loose puck captured by Marvin ended in a breakaway opportunity, but senior Maggie Taverna roped her in and kept her from getting the shot off.

BC earned a five minute power play in the second after Minnesota freshman Monique Lamoureux was given a five minute major and a game misconduct for hitting from behind. On the power play Restuccia picked up her second goal of the game with the assist by Kelli Stack off a long pass from Schaus at 14:00 to cut the Gophers lead in half.

The Eagles ended the period with 14 shots on net to Minnesota's 17 to give the Gophers a 28-21 lead in shots after two. Schaus stopped all 17 shots she faced in the second.

BC entered the third period a man down on a body checking penalty that followed over from the second. The Eagles killed off the penalty and attacked Minnesota at full strength.

At 5:28 in the third on the power play senior Meghan Fardelmann again closed the gap, assisted by Stack and Taverna, cutting the Gophers lead to one. The goal, Fardelmann's 12th of the season is also her 99th career point, one shy of the 100-point mark.

The Eagles pulled Schaus for the extra skater with two minutes to play but couldn't translate the extra firepower into a goal and Minnesota came away with the victory.

Goaltender Molly Schaus stopped 28 of 32 shots in the game.

Earlier in the day Wisconsin, Minnesota-Duluth and Mercyhurst all punched their tickets to Boston, winning their quarterfinal games against Dartmouth, New Hampshire and St. Lawrence respectively.